I wish I knew why some students choose to cheat. I suppose they do it for different reasons. Some are lazy and think they can get away with it. They probably think teachers have no time to check every paper and are playing a game of roulette. And I suppose others get completely overwhelmed by their workload and don’t manage their time well. I can imagine overachievers getting behind and feeling that they can’t hand things in late and somehow it’s better to cheat and get it in on time in the hopes of full marks, than deal with the potential deductions.
Either way it’s just wrong.
Plagiarism is not just copying out of a book or a paper, it’s theft, pure and simple. It’s no different from shoplifting in a store. Taking ideas without crediting the source is passing another’s thoughts as your own. In academia, it is considered fraud and, depending on the nature and situation, can result in expulsion for the educational institute.
I have dealt with plagiarism a few times over the years. Twice at an institution I used to teach at, in both cases the chair of the department discouraged me from following it through and suggested just a failing grade on the paper. In retrospect, I believe he did not want it reported to higher authorities because he did not want any poor reflection on the department…. all the students in the program are chosen by the faculty during interviews. If they have dishonest students, it would reflect badly on their assessments. One more reason I am glad I didn’t get that Faculty position. I don’t think I could work in that environment, one that covers up academic dishonesty. No wonder I didn’t get to join that old boys club.
Another time at UBC I had an extreme case…but she ended up dropping out so it didn’t need to go anywhere. I had a student cut and paste during an online exam. He failed anyway so nothing really more need be done there. I suppose I should have done something more about it, but it was after the issues at Malaspina and so I didn’t think to report it.
And now this new one. And this was so flagrant it was amazing. Normally I twig to plagiarism when a paper doesn’t jive with the question I posed, or the language seems vastly different from the emails and other papers I’ve received from the same student. That’s usually when I’ll do a little digging.
This one was so obvious it was amazing. The paper started off with a hauntingly familiar sentence. One that is almost burned into my brain. Because it is in almost every paper on stress that my former supervisor wrote. I grabbed the sentence and pasted it into Google and the first thing on the list was a paper that came out of my former lab, written by my former academic supervisor and now University President, and two former lab-mates. It even included some of my own work. And the student actually copied the majority of the early parts of the paper. And referenced nothing. No credit. She actually stripped citations from the paper. It was absolutely stunning for a fourth year student to do this.
I slapped her with a zero and debated locking her out of the final exam. I sent her the paper with a zero and included the journal article that she had stolen from and contemplated what to do with her.
She had been a good student, so that was shocking, and disappointing. I vented my rage on Facebook (no names of course) and waited for one particular voice to chime in, and it did. I am Facebook friends with the Assistant Dean of Student Services for my Faculty. I suppose I should have contacted her immediately, but I still have that hesitation due to Malaspina. Her response was that she plans to report the student to the chair of the president’s academic discipline committee and will write her a letter about her conduct when she returns in January. I was told that I should let her know that she’s been reported and steps will be taken. She said that she won’t haul the student before the committee (“although she should be”).
I’m glad to see that this Faculty cares more about promoting academic integrity.
Strangeley though, I’m actually a bit sad for her. I really wish she hadn’t done it.